


An Interplay of Factors

by blonk



Category: Villainous (Cartoon)
Genre: Black Hat is schemingTM, Flug has issues, Human Experimentation, Tags and Warnings To Be Added, angsty, no beta we die like a man, personality changes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:01:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23730484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blonk/pseuds/blonk
Summary: Doctor Flug Slys sat awkwardly in a military-grade jet, squished in between multiple sets of men. They were the same men from earlier, with black suits and tinted shades. They sat with standard military rigidity, not looking anywhere but straight ahead.It was tense. Or maybe it was only tense for Flug, because his boss sat across from him, casually flipping through a car magazine he had magically produced for himself. Black Hat's nonchalant mannerisms more implied that he was back in the manor in front of the fireplace rather than being detained."Main targets acquired sir," Flug heard one of the pilots say into the radio, "Force YX-7 have the other two. ETA is three hours."Flug turned to look out the window just behind his head. Squinting to see through the black tint he could vaguely identify another jet flying just a bit behind them, and further away, the manor. The distance combined with the window tint made the manor into just a bare outline, but Flug could still feel how imposing the manor was. Despite the constant stress and fear Flug was put under there, it was still home.And home was fading off into the distance.Title and tags are 100% going to change eventually.
Relationships: None, for now - Relationship, soon to be decided
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	1. Prologue

A young lady woke up to find herself strapped to a table, in a bright but empty room. Well, empty if you discount the one cabinet next to the table she was strapped to. When she looked up the woman could see her reflection in the mirrored ceiling. Electrodes attached to long, exposed wires connected to her head. Each one was separated by only an inch or so. The bright neon colours of the electrodes stood out from her dark skin and frizzy black hair. If she tried to scream for help, it would be muffled by a dirty cloth gag shoved into her mouth. 

There was the sound of a door opening and closing, and then sneakers on tile as a lanky man entered the room. He wore a billowing white lab coat, gloves, and a set of circular goggles perched upon his head, flattening his ginger hair slightly. Most notably though, a mis-match of scars covered his face and gave him an inhuman look. The scars over the majority of his face were obviously made by chemical burns. In a few spots on his face the old scars were replaced by new, fresh and still blistering chemical burns. The chemically induced injuries exclusively stayed on his face, but on his neck — reaching up from the man’s torso — were sets of longer slashing scars. It was as if he had been attacked by some sort of clawed monstrosity. 

The man came to a stop beside the woman. He adjusted the positioning of the leather strap holding her left leg with a hard yank before looking over at her red-rimmed eyes. He hummed as if he had just seen something curious and took away her gag.  
“You’re despicable,” she said, her voice hoarse.  
“So you’ve told me,” the man replied, turning around to dig through the one cabinet in the room. As he produced a clipboard and pen from the cabinet he asked, “Do you consider yourself a good person?”  
The woman did not reply, substituting it with a harsh glare.   
The man sighed. “Still the same as ever I see,” he said.

_Day 17, Patient 3_  
_No observable change in patient._

The man put the clipboard back into the cabinet and closed it. Not saying a word, he turned to leave the room.

Just outside was another briskly white room. It was moderately sized, but filled to the brim with a multitude of scientific instruments and lab stations. The man paced across the room to a cluttered desk shoved in the corner and fell into the chair next to it. The force of his fall made the chair spin around once before he put a hand on the desk, stopping it. He leaned forward and laid his head on top a pile of paper, leaving his arms to dangle towards the floor underneath the desk.

As he sat like this the man could almost physically feel the stares directed at him from the small picture frame just off to the right of his head — a picture frame holding the likeness of a girl decked in neon colours, a giant blue bear, and standing imposingly behind the two, a dark eldritch man.

For all intents and purposes, the people in the picture were dead.

How this had happened was... well, I suppose this is a story best told from the beginning.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My English teacher always said to make some time before the inciting incident to set up the setting and characters.  
> Too bad I never went to class.
> 
> Instead, now I just fill entire paragraphs talking about footsteps.

Occasionally Flug would be woken up by the screams of superheroes as they were crushed, incinerated, dismembered or otherwise killed painfully by the machines Flug had set up to go off at the push of a button.  
A button called the doorbell.  
Flug groaned as he turned his head to look at his digital alarm clock. On the backdrop of a photo from 5.0.5's first birthday blared the bright red numbers 3:57PM. The rest of Flug's bedroom was modest. A black carpet that clearly had never been washed covered the floor, and walls that matched the white ones in his lab made up Flug's bedroom. Other than his bed, nightstand, and alarm clock, the only other thing occupying Flug's room was a pitifully small dresser that had a few old notes and Flug's paper bag resting on it.  
The bag... well the bag was something. Flug definitely never liked wearing it — it was stuffy, hard to breathe in, and claustrophobic. Black Hat still made him wear it whenever someone outside the company would see him though. Including those stupid advertisements. Those really weren't Black Hat's best idea Flug had to admit. They all had to move to the island after the videos went out just because of the sheer amount of superheroes who had found their address.

  
Strangely Flug couldn't hear any crashing or screaming downstairs like he usually did after the doorbell went off. Demencia had a penchant for... over-greeting new visitors. Especially unexpected ones like today.  
Huh, weird.  
Probably should put the bag on for now then.

Downstairs, on his way to the kitchen, the manor was still just as quiet. Demencia and 5.05 were nowhere in sight. Regardless Flug still continued on his way to the kitchen, one hand on the freeze ray he kept in his lab coat pocket as per usual.

It was when Flug was halfway done pouring a packet of dino-egg oatmeal (which was only in the manor for 5.0.5 in the first place) that Flug was suddenly teleported into the manor's dungeons. Specifically a cell.   
Flug yelped and dropped the half empty packet of oatmeal, spilling it across the damp stone brick floor. After the initial surprise receded, Flug dug into his pocket to find, not his freeze ray, but instead a small piece of paper. Black, with cursive red writing on it, the note read:

_Do not say anything you shouldn't Doctor._

Flug knit his eyebrows together and frowned as he read the note, and as he finished it shimmered and faded out of sight. It only left behind a tiny cold spot in the air. Grumbling to himself, Flug sat down on the cold floor, hiking up one leg to casually lay an arm on.  
Flug supposed he really should get used to these kinds of situations.

A minute or two passed before multiple sets of footsteps could be heard from the far side of the dungeon, coming towards the cell Flug was in. The footsteps were heavy and paced, completely unlike how Demencia, 5.0.5, or Black Hat's sounded.   
Flug would probably see people running in terror before he ever heard Demencia. Though, if he did he'd hear light and frenzied footsteps that would (usually be accompanied by the smacking of bare palms against the ground as Demencia ran on all fours.  
5.0.5 was very vocal and Flug would hear a mrowl of delight as 5.0.5 saw him, followed by dull pats as he bounced over to hug him.   
Black Hat... well Flug wasn't sure if he'd ever even heard Black Hat make footsteps before — unless Black Hat intended to. Most of the time when Black Hat walked he was completely silent, as if he wasn't walking at all. It was weird, but definitely not the weirdest thing in the manor.  
Regardless, none of the audible footsteps walking down the dungeons sounded like Flug's companions. That being said, Flug could really only be sure it wasn't 5.0.5 or Demencia. 

As Flug hadn't stood up and stuck his head around the bars (Flug would rather not unnecessarily announce his presence if these people were hostile) he had a rather limited view of the hallway outside his cell. Though eventually the mystery group came into Flug's line of sight, stopping just outside his cell. Forming some sort of semi-circle were five men wearing suits, black reflective sunglasses, and stony expressions — not one carrying a weapon.   
In the forefront of their semi-circle was Black Hat, standing with his usual confident posture. His hands rested behind his back, and he was grinning — an evil, conniving grin.  
"Doctor," Black Hat said.  
One of the men stepped towards the cell door and aimed a small device at the lock as Flug shakily stood up. Flug opened his mouth to question what was going on, before stopping himself. What qualified as something he "shouldn't say"? An anxiety filled (at least for Flug) second passed and he decided to just give a small nod back to Black Hat as the suited man opened the door. The man with the door-device and one of the other men entered Flug's cell and quickly went over to the Doctor. Flug didn't resist as the first man pat him down, taking his weapons, and the other brought Flug's hands behind his back to handcuff them.  
The men led Flug out of the cell. Once again they formed a semi-circle, but instead of just having Black Hat in the center of them they also had Flug shuffling in the center of the circle. Flug and Black Hat were close enough to rub shoulders. Their close proximity reminded Flug once again that Black Hat was actually shorter than him. Only by an inch or two, but nonetheless it was weird for Flug to think about.

Flug wanted to say something. To ask Black Hat what was going on. He wanted to fight this — whatever this was — and hopefully get a new batch of test subjects. Though if Flug had learnt anything during his years under the demon, it was that Black Hat never bowed to another's force. For whatever reason, Black Hat was compliant with these men.  
So it must be one hell of a reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted this to go longer but this is the longest I got this to be without deciding I hate it and restarting lol


End file.
